Take Heed: Cisco Sees Start of a Recovery

Oh, joy! Cisco's happy again.

TWO YEARS AGO, ON NOV. 7, 2007, CISCO Systems CEO John Chambers sent shivers through the stock market, warning the company had seen signs of slowing demand from the U.S. enterprise sector.

In essence, Cisco (ticker: CSCO) had detected trouble brewing in corporate demand long before most people thought there was anything seriously wrong with the economy. Chambers' observation came a year before the dark autumn of 2008, when the economy nearly collapsed as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, American International Group (AIG),...